Jonathan Raban

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A 2006 exhibit at the Henry Art Gallery honoring Stranger Genius Award winners pays tribute to Raban.

Jonathan Raban (born 1942) is a British travel writer and novelist. Born in Norfolk, England, he was educated at the University of Hull between 1960 and 1963. Raban has lived in Seattle, Washington, USA since 1990.

Though he is primarily regarded as a travel writer, Raban's accounts often blend the story of a journey with rich discussion of the history of the water through which he travels and the land around it. Even as he maintains a dispassionate and often unforgiving stance towards the people he meets on his travels, he does not shirk from sharing his own perceived foibles and failings with the reader.

Frequently, Raban's autobiographical accounts of journeys taken mirror transformations in his own life or the world at large: Old Glory takes place during the buildup to Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 presidential election, Coasting as the Falklands War begins, and Passage to Juneau as the failure of the author's marriage becomes apparent. Similarly melancholic and personal themes of turmoil and loss can be detected in his novels.

[edit] Bibliography

Soft City (1974), ISBN 0-525-20661-2
Arabia: A Journey Through the Labyrinth (1979), ISBN 0-671-25058-2 (alternative title: Arabia Through the Looking Glass (1983) ISBN 0-00-654022-8
Old Glory: An American Voyage (1981), ISBN 0-671-25061-2
Foreign Land (1985), ISBN 0-670-80767-2
Coasting (1987), ISBN 0-671-45480-3
For Love and Money: A Writing Life, 1969-1989 (1989), ISBN 0-06-016166-3
Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America (1991), ISBN 0-06-018209-1
The Oxford Book of the Sea (1992), ISBN 0-19-214197-X
Bad Land: An American Romance (1996), ISBN 0-679-44254-5
Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings (1999), ISBN 0-679-44262-6
Waxwings (2003), ISBN 0-375-41008-2
My Holy War: Dispatches From the Home Front (2006), ISBN 1-59017-175-6
Surveillance (2006), ISBN